War in Ukraine
Military actions in Ukraine continue. Newspapers have long seen pictures of the devastation caused by the war, but the situation remains catastrophic.
One of the most critical days of the past year - 6th June 2022. On this very day, the Ukrainian counter-offensive plan was critically changed, and the world was confronted with a human catastrophe.
The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant flooding is a terrible event, as a result of which a large territory of the eastern part of Ukraine was flooded, agricultural and agricultural potential was destroyed, flora and fauna suffered great changes. But the worst thing is that people on both banks of the Dnieper River are faced with the lack of water, literally drowning in it.
Thus, UN Deputy Secretary General Martin Griffiths said that 700,000 people require drinking water and warned that the ruinous floods in one of the most important breadbaskets of the world will inevitably lead to a decrease in grain exports, higher prices for food around the world and less food for millions of people who need it.
This assessment was made a few days after the tragedy. Now the situation has become more complicated. Having dug deeper, we realized that about 6 million people are left without clean drinking water.
How can flooding of such a small area affect 6 million people?
The flood zone is only a small beach on the map of Ukraine. But it already has significant consequences. The Dnipro is the main source of drinking water for 70% of the population of Ukraine.
Due to the large number of water reservoirs and canals, centralized water supply of many large cities is ensured.
The demolition of the GES reduces water supply to the Russian-occupied Crimea, because the Pivnichnokrimskiy canal starts near Novaya Kakhovka, which could supply a significant part of the water needs of the peninsula.
The GES used to supply electricity and drinking water to the entire eastern part of Ukraine, and to supply power from Kherson to Zaporizhzhya. The dam connected the right and left banks of the Dnipro (automobile and railway bridges). The construction of the Kakhovka Hydrovuzel raised the level of water in the Dnipro to 16 meters.
Crimea will be left without water supply for 10-15 years or even forever, and a large part of the orphan lands – without irrigation.
The whole territory can become a European wasteland, which used to kill hundreds of millions of people around the world not so long ago.
Thus, the irrigation systems, which lived by the dam, covered 584 thousand hectares, from which Ukrainian farmers in 2021 harvested about 4 million tons of grain and oil crops.
At the same time, it is important to note that Putin and the Russian leadership know about the consequences and count on the fact that people’s suffering will continue. Those who think that the Russian aggressor is irrational should be silenced.
Historical parallels
In 1941 the Dnipro-GES was blown up to stop the Germans
Then it was also justified by military actions and the desire to stop the rapid advance of German divisions. In order to blow up such a serious construction, the explosion was laid for several days and the blow up itself occurred in the middle.Es ist bekannt, dass es flussabwärts keine großen deutschen Übergänge gab, über die das Wasser lief.
It is well known that there were no large German crossings downstream, where the water went. Therefore, the flooding and the flow of water did not so much impede the enemy’s military plans, as they harmed the local inhabitants, especially by destroying the passage over the Dnieper.
The exact number of the dead has not been named yet, but it is said to be between 20 and 120 thousand.
At the time of the counterattack of the Radian troops, in 1943, the Germans gave in to the tactics of undercutting.
Spillage of the Huanghe
The population density has a great influence on the number of victims. Thus, the breaching of dams on the Huanghe River in China resulted in heavy casualties. The Povinj was planned in 1935 by a group of German military radniki on behalf of Oleksandr von Falkenhausen.
The battle for Wuhan. The total number of deaths due to fever, starvation and plague reached shabby estimates. Two professional sources put the number at between 400,000 and 500,000, according to Wang Zhibin (1986) and Bi Chunfu (1995)
Obviously, the number of casualties was not considered by many in either China or the Soviet Union. Russia is an offspring of the Radian Empire and does not value the lives of others or its own.
Moreover, the breach of the Kakhovka dam has jeopardized the safety of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, since the water from the dam is used for cooling, and they have been talking about the replacement of power units since the moment of occupation.
Zaporizhzhia NPP explosion
Will Russia succeed in one more technogenic catastrophe to give an ultimatum to the West? We don’t know. But we must remember that the strategic thinking of the Kremlin’s top brass is outstanding.Beim GES-Bruch in Kachowka geht es beispielsweise weniger um militärischen Einfluss als um Weltpolitik. Das Jahr 2024 wird das Jahr der größten Herausforderungen für die Demokratie in der Welt sein.
For example, the Kakhovka GES breach is not so much about military influence as it is about world politics. The year 2024 will be the year of the greatest challenges to democracy in the world. In a simplified version, Putin’s lancet looks like this:
- Breaking the dam and flooding native lands, as well as the destruction of those territories that could not be flooded.
- Consequences: increase in prices for agricultural products.
- Due to rising prices, poor countries (especially in Asia and Africa) are facing the threat of famine.
- Consequences: an increase in the number of migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
- Increase in the number of migrants in Europe, particularly in Germany.
- Consequences: the migrant crisis
- The migrant crisis has no easy solutions and is one of the most important topics in sociological research.
- Consequences: search for any solution.
- Inability to find a strategy and to realize complex and painful solutions to the migrant crisis.
- Consequences: search for simple solutions proposed by populist and radical parties, such as AfD.
The signs and threats coming from Moscow are much more serious than they may seem at first glance. Having destroyed the Kakhovka GES, Putin staked not only on the mitigating effect of stopping the counterattack of the AFU, but also on the strategic possibility to “play” in 2024 due to the elections – to the European Parliament, the USA, the northern lands of Germany, Austria, Great Britain, India.
Elections can really change a lot of things. Putin hopes it will bring him closer to victory in Ukraine. We, at Ukrainian Future, believe that this is a chance to stop people’s suffering.
My daughter has forgotten how I laugh. Now I only cry.
"Well, what can I say: I don't live now, I live from call to call. Recently, my eldest daughter said that she had forgotten how I laugh..... Well, I don't laugh anymore, only cry. Now only my children keep me afloat. I live with expectations and hopes", - says Irina, who became an eyewitness of the flooding, reports the Ukrainian daily.
Water supply and destruction of infrastructure has long been a goal for the Russian army. Thus, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, power plants in Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkov were severely damaged. This made it impossible to keep the pumps pumping water alive.
One of our volunteers has painful experience of living in blockaded Chernihiv without water. Read about his story and personal motivation at the link.
Modern technologies allow to purify water from toxic substances – chlorine, metals, piscus – as well as to contaminate water from natural waters, if water supply is absent.
It is thanks to technological solutions that we will solve this problem. Read about how and how much it costs in our material
2.5 euros, a pot of coffee is the cost of clean drinking water for one person per year.
Thank you for every penny, which is enough to fill a glass with water for six million people.
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REFERENCE UKRAINIAN FUTURE
